Half a million refugees gather in Libya to attempt perilous crossing to Europe | World news | The Guardian
Up to half a million (yes I looked twice as well) refugees now waiting to cross the Med and invade Europe. Going to be the crisis of the Summer.
Well, bombing the blazes out of North Africa doesn't look such a good idea now.But we are where we are (through mismanagement and poor overall strategy, hand wringers and do-gooders).
Royal Navy (what remains of its small rump, and that is Bulwark) seem to be totally overtaken by events here, and have simply become a ferry service for the refs. (who are instructed by their smugglers to sink their boats on sight of the RN to guarantee a pick up).
There was talk of sending in commandos to destroy all small boats along the coast of North Africa...hmmmm hasn't happened yet and not sure this can work without destroying the livelihood of many fisherman and genuine tab/drug smugglers etc.
We continue have a lawless coast/state right on the coast of southern Europe robustly pushing hundreds of thousands our way and none of the clever whities have a single solution how to really solve it.
Using the UK's RN so robustly (yet again in a fringe Europe land problem, see Bosnia,Kosovo,Libya,Beirut/Lebanon and many more) should be leverage for Cameron in his negotiation with Merkel over the UKs overall contribution to the EU-where's Germanys assault ship? .
Anyway, crack on you clever 100 odd well paid Admirals on the payroll with the one ship to play with on this one.
* Actually, considering Pruners normally pretty sensible approach to problems as a whole, if I were a minister or an Admiral reading this thread this morning how about considering (a) the PM unilaterally withdraws part of the UKs EU funding contribution (which is apparently something in the region of between 9 and 11 billion GBP for FY2015-16 depending on what and where you read or believe). (b) Use that money to (1) partially re-float part of the RN (HMS Albion and fund more capable vessels) and fund RN interdiction operations (2) Use the remainder to establish safe camps in North Africa for the genuine refugees (this is difficult I concede totally) (3) But vigorously maintain patrols along the Med. coastline to prevent further incursion by the refugees. (4) Pay some local warlords to get on side with us to "help".
Expensive but I think this would bring our PM some genuine support and be a practical sticking plaster solution over the Summer).
An absolute nightmare for UK forces of course, and potentially bloody and unpleasant as well.